D4 Review

[jimmy]

Coming soon!

Just dropped the car off with Mr.Price, team oOple driver, so he can install his brushless (which arrives tomorrow). And all being well we should have it going at Bury Metro National this weekend. John is a better driver than myself, having acheived F2 status and D final at a National in 4WD, so should be a good test pilot for the car (enabling me to concentrate on writing and photographing).
John came over and built 99% of the car himself whilst I took photos. The paint job is a bit average, done in a rush last night, but it's the same paint scheme as Johns oople review X-5 which he's piloted for the last year.

There are some things that are a bit odd (to us), the washers in the front hubs (why), the multi piece shock top-caps, the fairly average manual which only ever mentions screw sizes by a daft code number (meaning you have to keep looking at the key at the side) - but plenty of nice touches. Motor install isn't that good, it seemed we couldn't find an easy way to install the motor without removing the battery post - I'm sure it is possible but with our tools and combined brain power (!) we couldn't do it. Fine for brushless (which rarely moves) but something like a Reedy KR which needs a skim per run it would be a nightmare.
The LRP brushless motor I installed was a good fit, the Mamba Max was CLOSE but would fit with some persuasion. the new Mtroniks brushless motor I tried to fit was no where near fitting in the car, the chassis looks like it would need some dremeling to fit.

The undertray mounting is great (had to remove / reinstall a few times just for photos, and it takes seconds).
The quality of the plastic mouldings is really good also, and hardly ever needed any work. Indeed the quality of pretty much everything is at the very top.

Had a few doubts about the car before starting it, but I was reluctant to hand it over to John tonight since it looks rather nice and feels great quality. The car does look a lower spec than some other cars, I think because of the black alloy that is used in all the sparts of the car. It just looks like plastic to the casual voyeur and gives the car less of a 'tricked out' look that so many modern 4WD buggies enjoy. But I'm glad the purple is kept to a minimum.


Anyway - that's what we've been up to this week and why I've not been online much.